Defending Goode
by gray-streaks
Summary: Jason, Percy, and their girls go to Goode's Halloween dance, but things don't exactly go according to plan. Technically part three of my Staying Behind'verse, but can be read alone. rated for mild swearing.


Jason's sitting at the dining table helping Percy with his English homework, the older boy's dyslexia has been particularly bad recently and it's making even The Odyssey horrendously difficult.

On the other side of the table, Annabeth is trying to explain geometry to Piper, but she keeps ending up on random tangents about how this theorem or that equation was crucial to her design of Aphrodite's temple up on Mount Olympus. Like that'll make Piper care more. She's barely pretending to listen at this point, her eyes are glazed over and she's nodding along. Annabeth doesn't seem to notice.

Sally's moving around in the kitchen half of the room, humming to herself and getting things ready for dinner. Every once in a while, she'll glance over and smile a bit, Jason's not sure at what, and then go back to making dinner for six like she's done it for years.

"Need help, Mom?" Percy asks, finally giving up and tossing his book on the table as he gets to his feet.

Jason almost says something, they're only about halfway through Percy's sheet of questions, but for all that he's trying to focus, Percy's been cross-eyed for the past half-hour and miserable for even long. Of all the books Jason thought Percy would have problems with, The Odyssey was at the bottom of the list. He's heard Percy quote whole passages, not often, but it's happened enough that Jason knows that Percy knows the poem practically back to front. But that's in Ancient Greek and Goode uses a crappy, technically correct but not very clear, English translation. Which wouldn't be a problem in and of itself, but the teacher wants direct quotes from the poem to support answers and it's been making things more difficult. Oh well, they have all weekend. So Jason just goes back to the algebra homework he abandoned almost an hour ago.

They're just getting their homework put away and setting the table when Paul finally gets home from the school. Friday's are student council days and he's the faculty advisor so he's always late getting home.

The round table really isn't big enough for six and Sally's been talking about going to buy a bigger set with the money they had planned on using for Jason's room, but it hasn't happened yet. It's okay though, Jason thinks as he squeezes into his usual spot between Percy and Piper, and shifts the whole chair over a little so that he's practically hip to hip with his girlfriend. More elbow room would be nice though.

They laugh as they pass the large bowl of pasta around and bump into each other with every move. Jason absently fill Piper's plate before passing the bowl across to Paul who twists around and sets it on the breakfast bar before grabbing the garlic bread a passing that around as well. And then the salad once the tray comes back to him. There just isn't room to keep the food on the table with them.

Every once in a while, Jason hit with how different from his real life this is, how weirdly normal. It's like he has two separate lives these days, the normal, almost sitcom-y one where he crams himself in at a tiny table with his girlfriend and four other people and helps his not quite cousin, not quite adopted brother with homework that should be a piece of cake, and the one where he's running for his life and sleeping in abandoned sewers. He's not sure which one he loves more.

"The council decided on the Halloween theme today," Paul says once they're all settled in and Annabeth has shoved Percy's elbow of the table for the first time.

"You try so hard to make it sound important," Sally teases him over her fork.

The four demigods snort into their plates.

Paul ignores them. "For the dance that is."

Percy rolls his eyes, "Halloween's in like a month and a half."

"We have to give people a time to prepare," Paul says like he's quoting something, probably something he said to the student council when he told them that they needed to vote on it now, "not everybody can slap on their armor and claim they're their brother from three thousand years ago."

"I'm not _that_ lazy," Percy says, taking a huge bite of his garlic bread.

"Yes you are," Annabeth leads the chorus.

Once the laughter dies down, it's Piper who asks, "Annabeth and I are allowed to go, right?"

Jason stares at the top of her head, "We're going?"

Percy gives him a funny look, "Why wouldn't we?"

"It'll be entertaining," Annabeth puts in, "I haven't dressed up for Halloween since I was six." When Sally looks startled, she shrugs and elaborates, "Dad forgot when I was seven, the twins were sick and still babies and they just forgot to take me out to get a costume until it was too late and I was the only one in my class without one. It's half the reason I started thinking about leaving in the first place. It's not something we do at camp, there didn't used to be enough of us to bother, and we all know what happened last year."

Jason shakes his head, glances over, oh good, Piper looks just as confused as he feels.

Percy laughs, "She promised she'd work on Olympus without checking the date first. I already had tickets." He pauses for a moment, "I don't suppose you've ever done it then."

"Nope," Jason says, "I did end up in a fight in Santa Cruz on Halloween, while on a quest once… there were mortals everywhere. They must have thought we were there for entertainment or something. Some kid kept screaming about how 'our costumes' sucked and threw smarties at us."

They laughed and for some reason it helped Jason make up his mind, "I suppose it could be fun, what are we going as?"

XxXx

"I still say you should have gender-swapped it," Piper says to Percy and Annabeth, adjusting her winged helmet, even if it hadn't been made of plastic, Jason isn't sure what good it would do if she was actually hit in the head, it's more of a headband type thing. Seriously, who designed that thing? He's not even entirely sure how it would stay on. Hell, he doesn't know how the plastic one stays on.

At least his is a proper helmet, even if the wings are annoying.

Annabeth rolls her eyes as she pulls her wig off and messes with her hair to try again, "Isn't it bad enough I'm pretending to be his niece? Besides, Percy would look ridiculous in a fake tail; at least I can cheat and buy a mermaid cut." She tries the wig again, and peers into the handheld mirror that was on the coffee table. "Even if green does clash horribly with the wig."

"If you say so," Piper says, swiping the mirror. "And everything clashes with and Ariel wig, it's a fact." She glances over at Percy who's tucking his blue pants into pirate boots. "I suppose he does look a lot like Eric."

Sally comes in with her camera, "Pictures, hurry up, we're running out of time… Everybody's armed, just in case?"

Jason grabs his sword off the table, he spent three hours last night playing with the mist so that it looks like a hammer, and he just hopes he can change it back. To activate he just has to swirl it by the strap like Thor does in the movie, it's awesome. He hooks it to his belt.

As she stands, Piper double checks to make sure that her dagger is in the sheath at her hip, in small quantities, celestial bronze doesn't show up on metal detectors so she can carry it in the open. Even if she draws it, most people will assume it's fake.

Annabeth double checks her purple clamshell clutch. Her dagger barely fit inside it, but even if she had a leg sheath, she'd never be able to get to it in time, not in this dress. As she gets off the couch, she pulls the chain over her head so that it hangs across her torso and the clutch is at her hip, she'll have to keep it close all night, but that's why she made it part of her costume.

Percy pats his pocket, looks confused for a second and pulls out a snail shell on a chain. "Oh, right, I forgot."

Jason snorts. Percy has only spent the last two weeks disappearing into the ocean whenever he could, despite Sally protests due to the impending hurricane, just to find the perfect shell. Of course he forgot.

Annabeth laughs. "So that's what you've been doing," she says as she examines the little shell. "Put it on for me?" She turns and carefully pulls the wig to one side so Percy can get to the back of her neck. Percy fumbles with the tiny clasp for a moment, but once he gets it, he runs a hand down her bare shoulder and drops a kiss to the side of her neck.

"There's nothing living in it, I hope," Sally says dryly, all put herding them into position in front of their fake fireplace.

"Of course not," Percy says, trying to help Annabeth fix her wig. She bats his hand away and manages it herself in a few seconds, so he fiddles with the red sash around his waist instead.

Sally eventually gets them posed the way she wants and snaps a couple of pictures and then does it again with just Percy and Annabeth. And then again with just Jason and Piper. And then just the boys. And just the girls. She's getting ready for individuals when Paul finally comes out of their bedroom dressed it what is probably the lamest policeman costume on the planet.

Paul had managed to get picked as a faculty chaperone, something Percy seemed surprisingly cool with, but that might just be because it meant he wouldn't have to do prom. "Come on, Sal, let them go."

Percy looks him up and down, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"There are cops in lots of movies," Paul says, grabbing his coat from the main closet, "pick one. I'm an enforcer of the school rules, it seemed appropriate. Don't make me have to arrest you."

All four teenagers roll their eyes and go to grab their coats from the closet.

"Do we really have to ride to the dance with this guy," Percy mumbles to Jason as they help the girls into their jackets, "I mean really."

"We could have to ride back with him too," Jason reminded him, struggling to get Piper's coat on over her cape.

"Yea," Annabeth says, elbowing Percy in the stomach, "IHOP was your idea, don't ruin it, Seaweed Brain."

XxXx

Jason really hopes that they don't get attacked tonight, fighting in his plastic armor and chainmail would be almost impossible. He's not sure how, or why, but his Thor costume allows him even less movement than his real, forty pound armor. Not to mention it'll be completely useless in a fight. And the cape gets in the way enough as it is, he adds as he steps on it. Again.

His favorite Sif seems to be coming to a similar set of conclusions as she gives in and finally tugs off her winged headband. Piper says something, but he can't hear her over the music, so she grabs his hand and pulls him off the dance floor and back towards their table on the quieter half of the gym.

"What's up?" he asks once he thinks they'll be able to hear each other without having to resort to screaming.

"Nothing, it's just hot," Piper says, tossing her headband on to the table and dropping into a chair. Clearly she's not the only one in their little group to have given up on her head gear; Annabeth's wig is already tangled up with their paper plates and plastic cups.

Jason figures he might as well join the party and takes his plastic helmet off of his head and sets it next to Piper's. "Punch?" he asks, brushing his sweaty hair back from his forehead.

Piper slumps in her seat, stretching her legs out in front of her and rolling her head back against the top of the chair. She smiles up at him, "I love you."

He laughs and drops a kiss to her forehead, "I'll be back."

Jason heads towards the back wall, weaving his way through the maze of tables and pushing chairs in more often than not. Most of the attendees are in a the confusing mass of costumes in front of the DJ, so it's a much easier journey than it had been earlier in the evening.

He stoops to grab a bottle of water from the kiddie pool filled with ice, or what had been ice, at the end of the table and, while he's shaking some of the extra moisture off, glances at the clock on above the main door. It's about a quarter after eleven. The dance is supposed to end at midnight; maybe they can make it through this without a monster attack after all. He scoops Piper's punch into a cup and debates grabbing some cookies, but there really isn't much left on the trays besides crumbs and a few discarded broken pieces, so he decides against it.

He's just made it back to table with Piper's punch and taken his seat in the chair next to her when Percy and Annabeth pull away from the rest of the dancers and start towards them. Annabeth's picked up her skirt with one hand to make walking easier and has her other hand wrapped tightly around Percy's. At first, Jason doesn't think anything's wrong, but then he notices that Percy has his pen gripped tightly in his other hand and _his_ hand automatically goes to the hammer at his belt.

Paul's heading their way too, making his way around the edge of the dancers and coming towards their little table from the side. He doesn't look happy, but Jason knows from past experience that he'll wait for and explanation before jumping to any conclusions.

What happened?

"Trouble," he murmurs to Piper out of the corner of his mouth. Jason realizes that her elbow is poking him in the side, so she probably already has a hand on her dagger.

"What the hell was that about?" Paul demands, once they all reach the table at about the same time.

Annabeth glances furtively over her shoulder, dropping her skirts and putting her hand against her little purse instead.

Percy twirls Riptide between his fingers, looking embarrassed and not quite meeting anybody in the eye, especially Annabeth.

Annabeth sighs, "I didn't just attack some random student because I felt the need for a fight, if that's what you think."

"I don't think anything at this point, other than 'that was a mean right hook,' you kids always have a reason, I just hope it's a good one." Paul says, eying all four of them, "I'm not the only one that saw that."

Percy sighs and says, "We have an empousai infestation… again. At least one, probably more, they seem to travel in groups."

Annabeth glances over her shoulder again and tightens her hold on Percy's hand until both of their knuckles start to turn white.

Paul frowns, "Empousai…" he mutters, closing his eyes as he searches his memory, "empos-" he snaps his fingers, "Orientation, vampire cheerleaders."

"That's it," Percy says and scratches awkwardly at the back of his neck with the hand that holds Riptide, "she almost got me. She's playing with the mist big time, I could barely see through it."

"It's because she's only half misting," Annabeth says, "one leg's real, one isn't and it's confusing our brains. Like dyslexia all over again."

"So… she's dressed as a female Tumnus?" Piper says, scanning the crowd.

Percy's eyes widen and his head snaps around. "Shit," he mumbles, "yup that's her."

Jason and Piper push their chairs back and stand it almost perfect unison. She draws her dagger before he's able to unclip his hammer from his belt, but it's a close race.

Paul pulls his keys from his pocket; _his_ sword is in a tiny sheath on one of the rings. "So what do we do?"

Jason locks his gaze with Percy and the have a quick and silent, but intense argument over who's leading this one. Jason loses. Percy knows the school better than he does and, to be fair, he led the last time.

"We get her… them… outside," Percy says, "There are too many mortals in here." He glances around, but all of the outside doors are on the other side of the gym, behind the DJ. "Well, I guess we go for a walk." He pauses for the briefest moment by Paul, "They'll probably leave you alone if you don't try to help."

Paul sighs and sticks his keys back in his pocket, "I'll just tell the other teachers I sent you home again." His eyes flick to Annabeth, "Call me when you're safe." He leaves them and goes back into the crowd of students, completely ignoring, or at least pretending to, the three girls that are huddled together at the edge of the mob.

Trying to look as casual as possible, the four demigods head towards the snack table and pretend to look disappointed at the lean pickings. Percy actually stoops and grabs a couple bottles of water, a legitimate weapon in his case, Jason realizes. And then they head into the bright lights of the hallway, hoping it just looks like they want away from the pounding music and the smell of several hundred sweaty teens.

Jason glances over his shoulder and sure enough, there are three girls dressed as satyr's following them.

"_Just the three?"_ Percy asks softly in Ancient Greek as the walk down the hall. There are a few other kids around, sitting on the stairs or on the floor and talking to their friends, one guy seems to be asleep while slumped against the water fountain, but none of them seem to be paying attention to them.

"_As far as I can tell_," Jason murmurs in the same language.

They go around the corner, towards the nearest door, and Annabeth suddenly stops. Piper drops to her in front of her and slides her hand up the front of Annabeth's skirt.

Jason feels his jaw unhinge as he watches them, _what the hell_.

Percy looks like his eyes are about to fall out of his skull.

Annabeth giggles at the looks on their faces, "Seriously, boys, you didn't think I'd be able to fight in this, did you? We made some alterations." She snaps her clutch open, takes out her dagger and cell phone, and then pulls the chain over her head and tosses it into a dark corner.

Piper undoes a hidden zipper and the lower half of Annabeth's skirt falls to the floor.

Annabeth steps out of it neatly and kicks it in to the corner with the toe of her high heel. Smirking a little, she steps over and presses a kiss to Percy slack mouth, "Come on, Seaweed Brain."

"You're incredible."

Her eyebrow's arch, "Of course I am. Hold this for me?" She holds out her phone and he numbly slides it into his pocket. "Now let's go."

Percy blinks at her, "Right," he says eventually as his brain starts working again, "vampires."

Piper peers around the corner, "We should probably… _run_," she puts a bit of power into the last word, just enough so that they know it's not really a suggestion, but not so much that they don't feel like they don't have a choice. It's a balance she's been getting really good at lately.

Even in her heels and a dress that's practically skin tight to her knees, Annabeth manages to be the first one out the door and down the stone steps outside.

It's amazing how fast empousai can run, Jason decides as they spin around to make they're stand on the lawn in front of the school. It's not the first time he's had the thought, they just look so lopsided that even though he's expecting it, it always manages to catch him a little of guard. They're just walking leisurely out the door at this point, but he knows that they won't have time to get much farther away.

He twirls him hammer by the strap and lets it fly straight up in the air. By the time it comes back down, it's his sword and he catches it by the hilt.

Beside him, Percy flicks the cap off Riptide with his thumb and mutters, "It's too open, dammit."

Jason doesn't blame him; they've ended up on the news three times this month already. "We have less than half an hour before we end up with an audience," Jason adds.

Annabeth swears under her breath. "So not what we need right now."

"I have to say," the empousa in the middle of their little formation says as they come with in touching distance, "when we thought that a Halloween party would be easy pickings, we certainly weren't expecting a feast like this."

The empousa on the left rolled her eyes, "Shit, April, I told you I could smell a demigod."

"And I told you that the scents were too confused to be sure, but now we know why," April steps forward and runs a hand down the front of Jason's armor, "this one's Roman."

Jason blinks, what does being Roman have to do with anything? Monsters have never found it weird before. Of course, he tries his best not to have prolonged conversations with them, it gets boring. He glances at Percy while trying to keep his gaze April (it's bad enough something stopped him from slicing her head off the instant she stepped to close), but Percy just shrugs. Okay, so he doesn't know either, good to know.

The third empousa, the one on the right, gives April a bewildered look (so it's not just them then, good), "The divide has never mattered before, why should it now that it barely exists?"

"Of course it matters, you idiots," April snaps, "if it didn't we wouldn't be able to tell the difference now would we? "

"Why?" Annabeth asks suddenly, "Why does it matter? What causes it?"

April doesn't answer.

"You don't know, do you?"

"Of course I know," the empousa snaps at her.

"If you knew," Piper says firmly, powerfully, "you'd tell us."

April scowls at her, but says nothing.

"Yea," Piper says, "you don't know a thing." She tightens her grip on her dagger, "And one more thing, _get your hands off of my boyfriend_." She lunges forward with her dagger, swiping at the empousa.

There's more power behind those words, more power than Jason thought she had, that he actually pulls his arms away from his sides a bit so that he's not touching himself. Seriously, he hates when she does that, it's weird. It works though, April drops the hand she has against his chest and takes a few steps back. It's actually a good thing for her. If she hadn't moved, Piper probably would have vaporized her with that swing.

When you're fighting a team of empousai, it's practically a given that the girls will do all the work. Empousai don't need weapons, all they need to do is get too close and turn up their charm, such as it is. Jason (and Percy now that he knows what he's up against), have only been able to resist April this long because they've had a lot of past experience with empousai, but once Uglies Two and Three step forward and turn it up, it's all they can do to keep from laying down and giving in. It's embarrassing.

Jason swipes at the empousai when they get too close, but he can barely stay out of range of their influence. The only thing that makes him feel better is that Percy's having the same problem. Their girls are quick, but so are the empousai and they're outnumbered.

Before long, Piper's fighting April while Annabeth takes on Ugly Two. They've apparently decided that Jason and Percy can take on Ugly Three by themselves and they can… barely. Again, it's embarrassing.

Jason ducks in; swipes with his sword and then jumps back out as she turns her attention to him. And then Percy does the same on her other side. And again. He knows that Percy's somehow doing most of the work, actually managing keep Ugly's attention for a few seconds before he has to step back out. He was a good fighter before, one of the best, but ever since Tartarus he's been unstoppable. Still, it's all they can do to just keep her occupied until the girls can take care of it.

They're running out of time though, he can feel it. Within a few moments, the lights will come on in the gym, the dance will be over and three hundred sweaty teenagers will walk out those doors. They had to end this qui- out of the corner of his eye, Jason sees the doors open and the first group of mortals comes out.

Shit.

For a brief moment, all three empousai are distracted by the intruders and the demigods instantly take advantage of it.

Piper ducks in and gets April in the belly, the empousa vanishes almost instantly.

Annabeth, who's been even more incredible than Percy lately and probably would have been able to finish her fight already if she'd been wearing jeans, actually throws her dagger as Ugly Two goes after Piper. It buries itself between the empousa's ribs and she turns into monster dust even quicker than April had.

For his part, Jason does something really stupid. He acts on instinct, twirling his sword twice in his hand so it turns into his staff instead. He hooks it behind Ugly's legs and pulls her to the ground. He doesn't think about it when he steps closer and plants the end of it against her chest. He's vaguely aware of Percy swearing and dodging to the side, but he doesn't hesitate to call the lightening. It's not much, but it's certainly enough to vaporize her and white out his vision.

When he's finally managed to blink away the last of the spots, Percy, Annabeth and Piper are lying on various spots in the grass, but they're all looking at him with the same, horrified expression. He can see Paul off to the side with a similar expression on his face.

That's when it hits him. He just summoned lightning in front of a bunch of mortals.

Slowly, he backs away from the dark mark in the lawn and tosses his staff up. He catches the hammer and carefully hooks it back to his belt. He's just wondering if he should say something when somebody in the mob of people by the doors calls out.

"Dude, that's the best Thor costume I've ever seen. How did you do that?"


End file.
